Jordi Fernández arrived in Brooklyn with a various world résumé, highlighted by in depth teaching expertise within the G League, NBA and on the worldwide stage. Alongside the best way, he constructed a robust status as a participant developer and defensive-minded strategist, and people qualities turned evident in his first season as Brooklyn’s head coach.
The Nets might have completed 26-56 and outdoors the playoff image, however Fernández’s first season nonetheless carried the texture of a step ahead. Brooklyn performed with grit and edge on most nights, refusing to resemble the tanking crew many anticipated. Whilst accidents and roster turnover took their toll, the Nets leaned right into a related type constructed on ball motion, tempo management and defensive effort.
Greater than the numbers, although, the season’s true progress was within the tradition Fernández and his workers started to construct, the place accountability, buy-in and perception gave the 12 months its sense of goal. The largest problem getting into 12 months 2, past pushing the Nets again into playoff competition, is integrating a younger core of 5 first-rounders whereas persevering with to reshape the crew’s id.
“Participant growth goes to be vital,” Fernandez informed reporters after June’s draft. “We’ve been very diligent. The teaching workers has carried out a fantastic job making our guys work, and people guys have improved. And we imagine they’ll do the identical factor.”
After star-chasing gambles that outlined the franchise’s final half-decade failed, Brooklyn lastly pivoted to persistence, changing into the primary crew in NBA historical past to draft 5 first-rounders in a single night time: BYU’s Egor Demin (No. 8), France’s Nolan Traoré (No. 19), North Carolina’s Drake Powell (No. 22), Israel’s Ben Saraf (No. 26) and Michigan’s Danny Wolf (No. 27).
Executives laughed. Brokers rolled their eyes. To many across the league, Brooklyn’s plan regarded extra like a punchline than a path ahead. 4 of the 5 picks had been guards with overlapping talent units and questionable capturing. Some noticed the choice to stockpile picks moderately than package deal them for a star as a missed alternative.
In Bleacher Report’s winners-and-losers roundup of the 2025 NBA Draft, the Nets landed in each classes. If even just a few of their picks develop into regular rotation items, it’s a win. However making an attempt to develop 5 rookies without delay might be troublesome in right now’s NBA.
“If even two of Egor Demin, Nolan Traoré, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf seem like strong NBA gamers, this draft might be fairly simple to take a look at as successful,” Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey wrote. “Any greater than that, and it’ll be a smashing one.”
For Fernández, the job is about translation, taking his status as a participant developer and making use of it to the biggest rookie class in NBA historical past. Brooklyn’s draft wasn’t merely about including our bodies; it was the clearest sign but that the franchise has dedicated to taking part in the lengthy sport.
Whether or not that persistence pays off — and whether or not the Nets can maximize their unprecedented rookie haul — stays to be seen. What’s sure is that no check of Fernández’s player-development abilities has ever been better.
The problem of what Brooklyn is making an attempt can’t be overstated. Younger gamers want regular reps to develop, but carving out significant minutes for 5 rookies alongside established veterans feels practically inconceivable. 4 of the 5 are ball handlers, too, which means they’ll be competing for a similar backcourt alternatives — a dynamic that would stunt particular person development.
“All these guys can actually move the ball,” Fernandez mentioned. “All these paint touches and ball reversals, it simply helps you when you haven’t solely major ball handlers, but additionally secondary ball handlers and all these guys can do it. So, it’s all a constructive. There’s no negatives right here.”
Even rebuilding groups just like the Nets face strain from followers to stay aggressive. Leaning on 5 inexperienced rookies makes that far tougher. It’s onerous sufficient for one rookie to regulate shortly, not to mention 5. The steep studying curve nearly ensures errors that price wins, and if the group doesn’t flash early promise, gamers threat being buried on the depth chart or moved, undermining the crew’s long-term imaginative and prescient.
Nonetheless, there are causes to imagine Fernández and his workers may simply pull off the inconceivable. In Denver, he was a part of the group that helped form Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and now-Internet Michael Porter Jr. into stars. In Sacramento, he earned a status for his hands-on growth with guards and wings, constructing belief and confidence in younger gamers like Davion Mitchell and Keegan Murray.
Throughout his worldwide stints, Fernández was tasked with fast-tracking younger gamers whereas preserving veteran teams aggressive. The identical balancing act now awaits him in Brooklyn, the place he should deliver the crew’s rookie class in control with out letting the crew regress. And even with a depleted roster final season, the Nets managed to play disciplined, unselfish basketball. That form of tradition is crucial for bringing rookies alongside, and with a entrance workplace unified on the long-term plan, Brooklyn’s newcomers gained’t be left sorting by way of combined alerts.
The Nets are trying one thing no NBA crew has ever tried, an endeavor many across the league view as impractical at greatest and reckless at worst. If the experiment fails, they threat stalling their rebuild, losing a historic draft class and resetting as soon as once more with out a clear path again to competition.
However right here’s the query few appear keen to think about: what if it really works? What if Fernández really finds a strategy to make all of it click on? If he can flip 5 rookies into one thing extra, Brooklyn’s gamble might redefine what a contemporary NBA rebuild appears like, and switch an experiment mocked in June right into a blueprint others will attempt to comply with.
